Battling fierce headwinds and sporadic gusts of rain, the Bears charged the Seekonk River with five varsity boats against Northeastern University in the Dreissigacker Cup Saturday.
Coming off of victories over Boston University and Harvard the previous two weekends, first, second and third varsity boats swept the Northeastern Huskies, with only the two Varsity Four boats coming up short.
The first race launched at 8:20 a.m., and Bruno 1V won by 1.4 seconds. The Bears dominated the first 1,000 meters of the race to gain a significant margin. By the final lengths, however, it was anyone’s race. Daniel Boasberg ’19 observed the finish from the Marston Boathouse dock, and said from where he was standing, it appeared that Northeastern would catch the Bears.
“That was a very tense moment for all of those guys,” Boasberg said.
At 8:40 a.m., the 2V boat started strong and maintained the lead to conquer the Huskies by just under six seconds. Slipping into a consistent, brisk rhythm off a power start, the 2V beat out Northeastern by two full lengths. The 2V victory, with Boasberg in the fifth seat, was part of a long-awaited plan for redemption.
“The varsity won last year (against Northeastern) when we went over the Charles,” Boasberg said. “But the lower boats got absolutely throttled by Northeastern, so I think we were definitely looking to avenge those losses in the 2V and the 3V.”
At 9 a.m., the Bears launched the 3V boat that would go on to clinch the win. The Bears came into choppy waters but managed to find a flat patch as they progressed to the middle 500 meters where they overtook Northeastern.
“They really took it to us so we wanted to regain a bit of what we lost last year,” said Nathan Manrique ’21 of the 3V’s fourth seat.
The two 4Vs raced last at 9:20 a.m., with the B boat coming in just over five seconds behind the Huskies and the A boat coming in about one second later. Typically, the two boats would race as a single eight-rower boat, but Northeastern did not have enough rowers to field an eight-person 4V boat, forcing Brown to split into two.
“It’s a very, very tough thing to ask of them,” Boasberg said. “You have to do selection which involves a lot of tough racing practice and then come up with crews, (who then must) develop chemistry together and go out and race under really tough conditions. They put forth a really good effort.”
With the team’s nine seniors bidding farewell to the Seekonk River, Lachlan MacKenzie ’22 from the eighth seat of the 3V said recruitment will be key for next season..
“Crew is great, and you should join,” MacKenzie added.
Men’s crew heads to Dartmouth next weekend to compete for the Atalanta Cup, their second to last regular season race before the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships.
